Key Points
- A potential climate deal has been proposed at the COP28 summit.
- The United States and European powers have called for a more ambitious deal.
- Climate campaigners have criticised the draft COP28 deal as a major step backwards from previous proposals.
A draft of a potential climate deal at the COP28 summit has suggested a range of options countries could take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but omitted the "phase out" of fossil fuels many countries have demanded.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a central benchmark of success for COP28 would be whether it yielded a deal to phase out coal, oil and gas use fast enough to avert disastrous climate change.
"That doesn't mean that all countries must phase out fossil fuels at the same time," he told reporters at the Dubai summit.
A new draft of a COP28 agreement, published by the United Arab Emirates' presidency of the summit, proposed various options but did not refer to a "phase out" of all fossil fuels, which had been included in a previous draft.
The draft deal listed eight options that countries "could" use to cut emissions, including by: "reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050".
The United States and European powers called for a more ambitious deal on fossil fuels.
The United States, European Union and low-lying island nations have pressed for the final deal to include language on winding down the use of fossil fuels.
"This text is clearly insufficient and disappointing," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Dubai, calling it "far away from what the world needs for a turning point".
The United States, whose envoy John Kerry was negotiating in Dubai, voiced appreciation to the Emiratis but sought changes.
"The mitigation section, including the issue of fossil fuels, needs to be substantially strengthened, and the finance section contains inaccuracies that must be fixed," a State Department spokesperson said.
The European Union's climate chief, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters that the text contains elements that "we simply cannot accept."
The proposal is "clearly insufficient and not adequate to addressing the problem we are here to address."
Climate campaigners slammed the draft COP28 deal calling for "reducing" the use of fossil fuels as a major step backwards from previous proposals.
The text "represents a significant regression from previous versions", said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.
